The DOI matches its Crossref record; 140 of the 144 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Academic integrity: a review of the literature
Abstract
This article provides a literature review on academic integrity, which encompasses the values, behaviour and conduct of academics in all aspects of their practice. This is a growing area of academic research as a result of the expansion of higher education on a global basis and concerns about standards of professional conduct. The article maps the main strands of research on academic integrity by reference to teaching, research and service using 115 articles derived from both western and Chinese literature. The review indicates that much of the literature is framed in terms of misconduct or academic corruption with research ethics the dominant focus. Researchers investigating academic integrity draw predominantly on multivariate analysis using surveys/questionnaires, documentary analysis and, more occasionally, interviews. While there has been rapid growth in the literature, a stronger focus is needed on identifying ‘ethical’ as well as ‘unethical’ practice despite the methodological challenges in overcoming social desirability reporting.
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Integrity signals
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In the citing paper
“Existing academic integrity frameworks (e.g., Borenstein & Howard, 2021;Eaton, 2022;Macfarlane et al., 2014) primarily address traditional forms of misconduct, such as plagiarism and cheating, focusing on moral reasoning and institutional codes rather than technology-mediated ethics.”
From Academic Integrity and Students’ Ethical Use of ChatGPT in Higher Education (2026) · cites this paper as Macfarlane et al., 2014
In the citing paper
“Traditionally linked to plagiarism and cheating (Macfarlane et al., 2014), it lacks a universally accepted definition in the AI era (Hagège, 2023).”
From Academic Integrity and Students’ Ethical Use of ChatGPT in Higher Education (2026) · cites this paper as Macfarlane et al., 2014
Citations
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Metadata
- Authors
- Macfarlane, B., Zhang, J., & Pun, A.
- Affiliations
- ,
- Beijing Normal University (CN)
- University of Hong Kong (HK)
- Corresponding author
- Macfarlane, Bruce
- Venue
- Studies in Higher Education
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2012-08-02
- Volume
- 39
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 339-358
- ISSN
- 0307-5079 (ISSN-L)
- 1470-174X
- OpenAlex
- W2076459868
- Cited by
- 359
- References
- 144
- Citations by year
- 2026: 59 · 2025: 58 · 2024: 48 · 2023: 31 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 24 · 2020: 27 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 19.16
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Studies in Higher Education (publishedVersion)
- Explore Bristol Research (publishedVersion)
- ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) (acceptedVersion)
- The HKU Scholars Hub (University of Hong Kong) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Academic integrity and plagiarism
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Ethics in Business and Education
- Social Sciences › Education › Higher Education Governance and Development
- Keywords
- academic integrity, academic misconduct, academic corruption, research ethics, teacher ethics, service ethics, higher education expansion, social desirability bias, ethical practice
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